Comments on: why does my German shepherd keep marking territories in house?

By: King Les The Lofty

King Les The Lofty — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:54:20 +0000

It’s obvious – YOU aren’t the alpha, and that dog is an uppity beta who wants to be the alpha. He is “labelling” aka marking everything that is his. I doubt he’d accept training to use one of those label-makers used in supermarkets, so you have these choices:
(1) Regain the status of alpha.
(2) Never bring HIM inside.
(3) Have only one male on the property.

He probably started doing it either almost-to-the-day when he turned 10 months old, or (if he is the senior dog) the day you brought the second dog home.

Some people simply CANNOT share. Some dogs are the same way. The less owner-training a dog gets the more likely that his ancestral canine-instincts will emerge.

How do you regain alpha status?
By earning it – lots of training, total consistency, lots of interesting things that only YOU can provide – that includes the supply of food, but ought not be restricted to it. And effective reprimands each time he scent marks in your presence – you can do nothing about what he does out of your presence.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly:
“In GSDs” as of 1967

By: Catriona

Catriona — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:15:01 +0000

The classic answer is he is marking it as his. It may be you are not being a good enough alpha in his eyes so he sees it as his job to mark the boundarys of his territory. A dog that is not alpha will never mark the packs territory so this is probably why its only the one dog doing it.

This being said it is also something that dogs with a lack of confidence will do. It gives them i kind of confidence boost when the *** on stuff so if you think your dog doesn’t think of himself as alpha this may be the reason for it.

By: Lis

Lis — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:15:53 +0000

Neutering can help a lot. If you arent the first people to live in the house, there is also a possibility that the previous owners had dogs that once marked their territory/had an accident.
All and all, it really comes down to training.

By: frogdog_nz

frogdog_nz — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:17:33 +0000

A dog marks its territory, home, people, claiming them as his own by marking.
It is a security blanket, per human terms.
The best cure is constant contact and thereby correction advising the dog of unnacceptable behaviour.
If you run males together each will over ride the others scent by ********* over any trace of the other males presence.
Chris